Death, But No Taxes

2014 has been a relatively one-sided affair in the Gallente – Caldari war zone, as Lowlife has reported on earlier. The so-called pendulum has been firmly stuck in favor of the Gallente since the beginning of the year. It went so far that some Caldari loyalists openly admit to employing a starvation tactic. The theory is that if they did not offer the Gallente any fights, the militia would lose its main motivator for cohesion and fall apart. To a certain extent, it has worked, and some would argue that this, along with guerilla tactics, were the only viable options available to the Caldari.
The north-east wing of the war zone, traditionally unpopular amongst the Gallente because of its locale, was quietly re-captured by State forces without much fanfair. Reinstating the old ‘border’ at the gateway system of Okkamon. Meanwhile, other Caldari stubbornly hold on to a handful of retaken systems on the the north and north-west edges, far away from ‘Frog’ home systems, along with the ever fought-over Heydieles. Otherwise the war zone has remained more or less static for months.
Meanwhile, the Minmatar militia has fallen apart following a renewed focus from Crusader forces. The formation of an Amarr militia coalition focused on a clear vision and the streamlining and unification of the militia has turned the tables. However, rather than the dramatic and bloody Huola campaign that grabbed headlines this summer, the Minmatar have instead been bled to death through relentless pressure, resulting in the departure of key alliances such as Iron Oxide and Late Night Alliance from the TLF. While “Burn Huola” ultimately failed, it was a spectacular affair enjoyed by most parties involved. This time around however, the erosive effect of determined plexing as a form of siege warfare hollowed out the fortress system, and in the end, it was defeated in much the same way as Innia, all those months ago – a shadow of its former self.
The strategy also proved efficient precisely because of its grinding and un-spectacular nature. No fleets of Gallente were seen rushing over to aid their Minmatar allies, because there was no dramatic event to draw them out. Instead of attacking a highly motivated enemy with powerful allies, the Amarr first destroyed the morale of the Minmatar, making the taking of Huola inevitable. Several accounts from both sides are not particularly passionate about the conflict of late however, it was done this way because it worked, simple as that.

Enabling the enablers

The state of both war zones raises an issue that was brought up during the lowsec session of the CSM Summer Summit in September. Militias that are have ‘lost’ seem to have a really hard time getting back on their feet, essentially forced to retreat to highsec until the enemy loses interest and grows apart. The problem with this is that it takes a very long time (by lowsec standards) and is basically only efficient because of sheer boredom. It also becomes a catch 22, because starving in Tier 1 and hiding in highsec isn’t something FW players are interested in, often opting to leave the militia altogether in search for greener pastures.
The solution was only briefly mentioned at the Summit, but it was there:

DJ FunkyBacon – If we could corporate tax LP that would be great.

Sugar Kyle – Yes. This has been asked for quite often. If people do not have the ISK to give their corporation that they could give LP instead.

The rise and success of a militia is based on structure and those CCP Seagull refers to as “enablers”. That structure comes from corporations and subsequently, alliances and their leaders. However, in order to run doctrine fleets, ship replacement-, logistical- and training programmes, as well as fund corporate- and alliance level investments, you need taxes.
The way FW works however, means that most players income consists of loyalty points, rather than direct ISK through traditional missions or ratting. This works relatively well on a personal level, but not at all on a group level. It means that taxes are denied as a key income stream for most corporations involved in Factional Warfare, making central organisation efforts very difficult to fund.
Instead, corporations and alliances are forced to adopt their own systems of collecting a form of tax, unsupported by the game, if they hope to accomplish something more than haphazard roams and gate camps as an entity on any kind of regular basis. This is difficult, time-consuming, and seldom works. It often leads to infighting and loss of motivation, as well as putting a lot of personal pressure on a small number of individuals.
The answer, as alluded to by Funky and Sugar above, is a corporation LP tax. This would allow corporations to use LP the same way individuals do (converting LP to ISK by selling loyalty point store items on the market, while also using some of the items directly), in order to fund corporation-, alliance- and militia-level activities and programmes.
Wars are fueled by taxes after all. Without taxes there is little financial support for ‘enablers’ to do their thing and they often have to go looking in their own pockets to fund any projects they might be motivated to do.
An LP tax may be just what a militia that’s down on their luck needs, motivating leaders and instigators to get things moving again. Most importantly, it allows them to create content for their fellow militia and its enemies, something that should be supported in every way possible.
Acknowledgement: Thank you to Uraziel Tsao for the reminder.
Tags: corporation management, Facional Warfare, isk, lowlife, lp, niden, tax

I had not read that piece. Unfortunate, but I guess it happens. Ultimately that’s not important, what is important is that the issue gets addressed.

jake

100% agree, but faction war also has bigger problems than this. The entire plexing system is a mechanic that should be gutted, in favor of something that requires PVP, and FW missions need a complete and brutal overhaul. There are few things that make people want to leave FW than farmers, in my experience. The whole warzone system has also (as in, at least since 2013) gotten stale, and it would be nice to see warzone control actually impact gameplay throughout the rest of EVE.

Martin

Wouldn’t it be better to have the LP tax be directly donated to upgrade tiers – seems to me that would help the stagnation you’re talking about.

Uraziel Tsao

LP dumps are generally more strategic than just a general flow of LP. The systems are chosen based off of their likelyhood of being deplexed, the number of points you’re trying to achieve, and how many systems are under control. Or possibly the system bonuses, one of which (clone costs) I just realized that we’re losing with Rhea.

ronpaul

terrible idea, I won’t pay taxes on my pvp

Uraziel Tsao

Corporations having funding to make pushes for systems and to help motivate their members is crucial. Not to say members are only motivated by ISK, but it’s much easier to get your members to participate in the long sieges and defense of systems when they know that they’ll be able to easily and cheaply reship.

I know some in FW dislike when other large entities come into the warzone for fights and to refill their members’ wallets. However even if they’re tourists, it does enliven the warzone and shakes things up. It’s new people to fight, either with or against, and I think that’s healthy for the warzone. With the ability to tax LP, it would also help refill the corporate wallet as well as the members and could help recruit more corporations to the warzone, even if they aren’t there for the long haul.

Malitia fundraiser

Excellent article, I agree this stands out as an anomaly and should certainly be addressed in the faction war revisit/ revamp.

X Gallentius

The following opinion is from an “Enabler”, so take it for what it’s worth.

If you want power to shift from players to corporations, then taxing LP is a good solution. However, concentration of power is a bit of an anti-thesis for FW. FW is supposed to be granular experience where fighting over distributed objectives wins the day. The reward system should encourage this. Concentration of power to corporations will lead to fights in larger ships over non-FW objectives like POSes and POCOs that are outside the immediate objectives of FW.

This is neither bad, nor good, but if you want fights in FW, then taxing LP isn’t the answer. FW corporations without taxable LP are the most active PvP corporations in the game already. Why? Getting fights isn’t about taxing LP, it’s about finding a way to pay for getting ships to the warzone – which is solved simply by making the players actually pay for their ship. Those players who pay for their ships do so by earning FW LP through running plexes. And by running those plexes, those players were available for the PvP that everybody enjoys.